CHAPTER 7: THE ROOFTOP STANDOFF
Automatic gunfire shredded the glass lobby doors of the broadcast tower. Commuters screamed and scattered as Crane and four heavily armed operatives stormed the ground floor.
Raymond and Barnes returned suppressing fire from behind the structural pillars, buying Toby precious seconds to access the express service elevator.
"Go, Toby! Key card is seventy-two!" Raymond yelled over the deafening echoes of rifle fire.
Toby hesitated for half a second. "Don't kill them, Dad."
"I'll do what I have to, son. Run!"
Toby entered the elevator shaft, bypassing the digital locks with a custom magnetic bypass card Clara had given him before her death. The car shot upward toward the 61st floor.
Minutes later, Toby pushed open the heavy steel access door onto the blustery, rain-slicked rooftop. Philadelphia stretched out beneath him like a living circuit board under gray clouds.
Before he could reach the transmitter terminal, the door behind him swung open violently. Crane stepped onto the gravel roof, a suppressed automatic in hand, his trench coat billowing in the wind.
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"End of the line, prodigy," Crane sneered.
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